NPP protests hike in CDF, car loan, TA/DA of legislators

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Feb 1: Launching a blistering attack on the State Government for doling bonanza to Ministers and MLAs by doubling their CDF, housing, car loan, sitting allowance and TA/ DA, besides salaries and other perks, scores of Panthers Party activists led by its chairman Harsh Dev Singh and state president Balwant Singh Mankotia besides others staged a protest demonstration at Exhibition Ground here Jammu today.
They were demanding revocation of the announcement which could otherwise breed corruption, loot and plunder of the tax payers money. Amid raising anti-Government slogans, the angry protesters torched the effigy of BJP-PDP alliance.
Expressing his shock over the extra ordinary hike in the pecuniary benefits to the Ministers and MLAs as announced by the Chief Minister in the Assembly, Harsh Dev described the sops as organized loot of the tax payers’ money. He expressed his dismay over the hefty doles to the legislators in the form of unprecedented enhancement in their discretionary grants and all other perks. He said that it was scandalous that the MLAs CDF should be doubled to Rs 3 crore, Housing loan to Rs 20 lakh, car loan to Rs 5 lakhs besides doubling the TA and DA at a time when the State was passing through the worst ever financial crisis.
NPP leader said that only recently the BJP-PDP Govt had doubled the emoluments of legislators and those of their PAs. He said that while the Govt was averse to the hardships faced by the common man, the law makers were voting themselves whopping hikes in their salaries and perks. Describing the Govt decision as a gross violation of propriety, probity and morality, Singh said that such moves had taken sheen off the anti- corruption slogans of the Govt.
Pointing towards the pathetic plight of the unemployed and underemployed educated youth of the State, Singh said that the incumbent Govt framed the most obnoxious ‘New recruitment Policy’ for them on less than one third of their legitimate salary on grounds of financial constraints. He further pointed out that several sections of employees including DRWs, casual, Need based and other workers of PHE, I&FC, R&B, M&RE, NHM, ReTs, temporary teachers and contractual lecturers were on the roads seeking the release of their nominal wages which had been unpaid for periods ranging from 8 months to two years. He said that with growing disenchantment against the Govt in last two years, its only achievement was the enrichment of its MLAs and Ministers.